24 minutes ago, GottaLoveCalif said:

When did the OP end up getting their interview date?

I ended up getting assigned an interview date on July 3 and the interview itself was on Aug. 21.  Good luck everyone!

24 minutes ago, FERBOS said:

Hello everyone,

I posted in another thread about the interview yesterday. But wanted to let you know that my interview went very well and quickly, in less than 2 hours I was in and out of the consulate. The CO was extremely sensitive about my time constrains and made it happen under the August bulletin, so I am getting my passports back next week, after the long weekend.

Thank you all for the support during this time. Next step, drive to Boston, probably by Wed or Thu.

 

Congrats, brah!

10 hours ago, FERBOS said:

Canadianeh... You are E3 or E2? Are you getting your visa soon? Did they say anything about the visa cap for the month? Or it really does not apply to us as we are under the August bulletin? 

I’m EB-2.  The CO said I should get my visa in 2-3 weeks but the handout I got said it should be within 2 weeks.  Nobody said anything to me about a cap when I was there.

8 hours ago, HEL-Canada said:

I had my EB-2 interview this morning and was approved.  My interviewer even authorized me for "next day pick-up" tomorrow rather than waiting for my passport to be mailed, because I am already working in the U.S. (which is something I had read somewhere as being a possibility months ago, but then could never find it substantiated in any of the materials I received).   This was a nice surprise, although it would have been even better to know in advance, as I had planned to wait for my passport in Toronto, so I had to pay to change my flight/hotel arrangements at the last minute in order to stay in Montreal another day... but oh well.

 

For a 7:30 appointment, I got there at 7:15.  I was #3 in the door and I was approved and out the door by 8:15.  The interviewer was friendly and asked me only a handful of questions.  What company is the petitioner on my application?  How long have I worked there?  Where did I go to graduate school?  What year did I graduate?  What will my salary be?  Where will I physically work in the U.S.?  Where have I traveled internationally in the last 5 years (that one was hard without the help of my cell phone, but I did my best to remember and the interviewer didn't seem to care too much)?  What visa am I on now?  

 

Don't bring any bags with you - they won't let you in with them, and so if you show up with bags you'll have to leave to go drop your car or hotel. 

 

Good luck to all.

Congratulations to those who have interviewed already!  I am also happy to report that my IV has been approved!

HEL-Canada, we were in the same group this morning (I was #8).  I had a very similar experience to yours.  Originally, I had all of my documents in a briefcase but I wasn’t allowed to bring it inside the consulate so I had to carry a bunch of loose papers.  Please bring folders as this will make your life much easier when you are there!

The interview was strange from the start as you are standing up and speaking to someone on the other side of a window.  The officer was dressed in very casual work clothes which was a bit of a surprise.  It felt more like I was speaking to a cashier or administrative assistant.  I brought a tonne of supplentary documents but wasn’t asked for anything other than the mandatory items listed on the website.  That said, I’m still glad that I brought them and was over-prepared.  My questions were very basic:

1) What is your occupation

2) What is your field of specialization 

3) Where will you be working 

4) Where did you go to grad school

5) How long was your longest stay in the US in the last 5 years

6) Where have you travelled internationally over the past 5 years

It was very casual.  I am super happy that this is all finally over.  Thank you all for being such a great (cyber) support system.  It has been great bouncing ideas off of you all these past few months. Congrats to those who have already interviewed and best luck to everyone who is waiting to be assigned an interview or has one coming up.  Keep the faith!

17 minutes ago, TexasForeverYall said:

I guess one of the EB-2s was asked for an updated resume at their interview last week (even though it had already been sent digitally), so make sure to bring one to your interviews!  I am printing out everything and bringing my entire package just in case and bringing it along!!  Really grateful for this site to be able to know what to expect, with so many things constantly changing... 

Thanks TexasForeverYall!

i also read on his site that some EBs were asked for University transcripts.  If you don’t have in time, bring your wall degrees.  Does anyone else have any other tips?

Just to be on safe side, I am going to bring my actual employment contract, state license (for my field of work), paperwork from when I was on a temporary US work visa a few years ago.

44 minutes ago, TexasForeverYall said:

Hi Everyone,

 

This is what I found so far... from what I can understand your priority date must be current during filing and final adjudication (which I believe is at the interview itself).  It looks like anyone who is EB2 - EB5 will be fine as long as they have their interviews in August, as a visa number would have been allocated to those cases, however as of September 1st EB-2/EB-3 visas are no longer current and those people will have to wait until the new fiscal year October 1st.

As an EB-1 it looks like I have the worst possible timing ever as the retrogression was applied in August for my visa.  Had I had my interview 21 days earlier I would have been okay...

So unbelievable sad about this!!!  

 

When does Visa Retrogression occur?

Retrogression occurs when the demand for a particular immigrant visa for a particular nation exceeds the availability of that particular visa. Retrogression often happens towards the end of the fiscal year (between July and September), as the annual limits are reached sooner than anticipated. When the new fiscal year starts on October 1 of each year, the cut-off dates tend to progress to the pre-retrogression dates as a new supply of visas is available for the year.

How does USCIS process Visa Retrogression cases?

Your priority date must be current both at the time you file your adjustment of status application and when your application is being adjudicated. If your priority date was current in one month, but not in a future month, and you failed to file your I-485 application when it was current, then you must wait to file until your priority date becomes current again.

If the cut-off date regresses after you have properly filed your application to adjust status with the USCIS, a USCIS field office will continue to process your case to determine your eligibility to receive a green card. While USCIS will continue to process your case, your case cannot be approved your priority date is current. In the meantime, the USCIS field office will conduct and complete any necessary interviews and requests for additional evidence; ensure all security and background checks have been completed; and confirm that the eligibility and documentary requirements have been met. If, after this process, it appears that you are eligible to receive a green card, then your case will be held in abeyance until your priority date is current and a visa number is available to you. During this period of abeyance, you may remain in the United States and seek certain benefits, such as an employment authorization document and advanced parole.

Keep in mind, although your case cannot be approved until your priority date again falls before the cut-off date, USCIS may still deny your case if it is determined that you are ineligible to adjust status for a reason unrelated to visa availability.

Hi TexasForeverYall,

Again though, they are clearly referring to ppl who will be or have filed for “Adjustment of Status.”  They mention the term several times in that excerpt (and the the previous link posted).  In addition, they mention the I-485 (which is the form used for AOS), they talk about USCIS conducting interviews (AOS), and they discuss “remaining” in US.

People who have applied for “Consular Processing” (like us) are currently living and/or working in countries other than the US and are applying for permanent resident from these other countries.  We need to be interviewed at the Montreal consulate because we are not currently residing in the US. AOS ppl are currently living/working in US under some other sort of visa and are trying to “adjust their status” to permanent residency.

Consular Processing does not require filling a I-485.  We had to get approval from the NVC and needed to fill a DS-260.  We will not remain in the Us because we aren’t currently in US.  Also, we have already been approved by USCIS - it is the consulates themselves who interview us.  They will decide to approve us or put us under Admin Processing after the interview.  

I hope this helps.  Let us know if you find out any additional info after speaking to your lawyer and/or the NVC/USCIS tomorrow.  Thanks!

13 hours ago, TexasForeverYall said:

Upon further inspection... it looks like they have no more EB-1 visas to give out this fiscal year... I am beyond devestated...

 

 

The September 2018 Visa Bulletin was released today. Most notably, EB2 and EB3 worldwide had final action dates imposed and EB2 China and EB2 and EB3 India retrogressed further. All of these dates are expected to return to current or to their August 2018 dates in October. However, contrary to previous visa bulletins, EB1 is now not expected to see much movement until December instead of returning to current in October.  

Hi TexasForeverYall!

Thanks for the post.  I might be wrong but I’m fairly sure that this only applies to ppl applying for “adjustment of status.”  If you look at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

it says:

USCIS, in coordination with Department of State (DOS), is revising the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored preference adjustment of status. The revised process will better align with procedures DOS uses for foreign nationals who seek to become U.S. permanent residents by applying for immigrant visas at U.S. consulates and embassies abroad.

Everyone on this thread (Canadians who have or are waiting for EB interviews at Montreal consult are in the “Consular Processing” pathway. We are the ppl that they refer to in that last sentence (ie. Consular processing). I don’t think you (or we) have anything to worry about!  Hope this helps!!!

Anyone else care to chime in?

Thank you all very much for the helpful information!  For those that got approval on the day of your interview in Montreal, how long did it take afterwards to actually receive your Immigrant Visa (so that you could legally cross border and move to the US).

Thanks!

23 minutes ago, ruban said:

Interview letter

Yes, I recieved mine.

On 7/30/2018 at 12:19 PM, ruban said:

Hello,

Has anyone received an IL ???

What is an IL?

3 hours ago, PhilCanUSRN said:

Awww.. too bad for me I’m on EB2 category..

It is a real mystery.  I ended up waiting 109 days (I’m EB-2).  On this thread, you will see two others who waited even longer (both had cc 7 days before mine - may have been longer as that was date they recieved letter).  Interestingly, someone else on this thread had their case completed 6 weeks after me (similar cc date to you) and they were assigned an interview the same time as me.  In less than a week NVC will start handing out the next batch of interviews so hopefully you’ll get one this cycle!

1 hour ago, Jimmy The Tulip said:

We are so happy for the people finally receiving their interview dates; almost there guys!

 

Question about the timeline. Lets assume that my CC date is July 1st but my priority date is still not current. How does the timeline work in that case? Do I need to wait 100 days (or whatever current wait time is) after my priority date is current to have an interview scheduled?

Yes, you need to wait until priority date is current.  Not sure exact details but this seems to be the wrong thread for your question.  You should search the VJ site for one that is more appropriate for you.

5 hours ago, FERBOS said:

Hello everyone, I also got my interview. Case closed April 10th and interview scheduled for August 31st. Looks like the queue moved a lot this time. So happy for all of us!! 

Congratulations!

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations!!!!

2 hours ago, TexasForeverYall said:

 

Hi HEL-Canada,

 

I just got my interview date as well - August 20th!!  So happy!!!   

Congratulations!!! That’s amazing news!  It’s been such an unnecessarily long journey for us all.

1 hour ago, AAA_can said:

Hi everyone, just like to share good news. My case complete March 23rd and today July 5th received my interview letter. The interview will held on August 16th at Montreal. I am so happy after very stressful wait and feeling in no where!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

 

Congratulations!!! That is amazing news!!!

2 hours ago, HEL-Canada said:

Good news - I just got an email from NVC with my interview date, which is August 21st.  Hopefully everyone else gets their dates soon.

2 hours ago, HEL-Canada said:

Good news - I just got an email from NVC with my interview date, which is August 21st.  Hopefully everyone else gets their dates soon.

YESSS!!!!! Congratulations!!! I’m super happy for you.  

Hi TexasForeverYall

Ferbos is correct about what he said re: case being at NVC.  I’m not exactly sure the algorithm that the NVC uses to schedule cases.  I also don’t know if the 5 different EB classes are prioritized differently at this stage.  I do know that the first 3 EB categories (1,2 and 3) each receive 28.6% of the worldwide limit.   EB4 and EB5 each get 7.1%.   It is advantageous to be EB-1 because you are also entitled to any unused visa in 4th and 5th categories.  EB2s then get any unused visas from first categories, and EB3s from 1st and 2nd.  Worldwide, 140,000 EB visas are given out which includes spouses and minor children.  This number is for people like us who go through consular processing and ppl who take the adjustment of status route (wayyyy more of them - see bar graph in link bag SciFamily sent and in prev. comment that I posted.    

Each country can only have a max of 7% of the worldwide limit.  There is a pie graph on the site SciFamily sent which shows that China and India (plus others) are by far the biggest users of these.  Canada is in the “other” category at less than 2%.

Since family-based categories have no annual limit, as many of these can be given out as there are ppl.  The bottleneck for them seems to be the number of interview slots available each month at the different embassies.  

I just don’t know the system that the NVC uses when deciding how to allocate interviews to people.  Clearly, visa category does matter.

Have a look at the filtered dwheels excel sheet that I posted yesterday.  Since 2014, only 11 people have indicated they were from Canada and in EB categories.  You can see  that our wait times have been very atypical.  Several of these people were assigned interviews in a few weeks.  Before us, SSeb has the longest wait time in the bunch which was 72 days.  I’m not sure why there is such an enormous backlog now  

5 minutes ago, HEL-Canada said:

I tried calling NVC just now (I have a CC date of March 9th, same as Texas ForverYall), and they did not have an interview date for me yet (boo).  However, the woman I spoke with said she thought they would be scheduling August interviews through the end of this week, so she suggested that I call back on Friday.  

It must have been the additional request then.  Best of luck.  I’m rooting for you guys and I really hope that you both get dates assigned soon.

1 hour ago, TexasForeverYall said:

So happy for you!!  What date your interview is?  My CC date was March 9th and no news yet for me...

Hi TexasForverYall,

Have you tried calling them today?  Since they are a part of the federal government, emails are screened more closely before sending out and it can take 2-3 days before you receive an actual email.  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  Best of luck!

1 hour ago, bkbk8 said:

That is awesome news! Congratulations!!

 

Do you mind sharing when your interview date is?

 

Also, if it's not too personal, can you share the high level reason(s) for the expedite request?  Unfortunately I left the USA and living in Canada and I'm on unpaid leave for the past 2 months and unable to work remotely for the company until I get my Visa appointment scheduled. So I'm out of a job technically and just afraid it will take longer to get an appointment than expected.

Thanks, bkbk8!  My interview date is Aug. 21, 2018.  For my first expedite request, I focused primarily on the US community that I am meant to be serving once I commence employment and why the long wait for this visa is harmful to them (they are a vulnerable sector of the public).  This time, I focused a bit more on personal reasons such as severe financial loss.  Good luck to you and hopefully you hear back soon as well!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share the great news that my Immigrant Visa appointment has been scheduled.  My total wait time from cc to assignment of interview date was 109 days.  Has anyone else heard yet?  I put in an additional request to have the case expedited so I’m not sure if that is what pushed it through or if this was simply it’s natural course.  I hope you all get similar news soon.  Keep the faith!

Another day and still no news.  FYI, when I take the entire dwheels spreadsheet, copy/paste it into Excel and filter for Country of Interview (Canada/Montreal) and Visa Type (only Employment-Based), this is what I get.  As you all can see, our wait times have been waaayyyy above the norm.  What is going on?

On 2017-10-07 at 10:44 PM, majosy said:

Hai everyone, I am new to this forum. I've my case status showing 'ready' from 25th September 2017. Iam supposed to get an email from montreal consulate. But my agent told me that it may take up to 3 months. Is there anyone here who got interview appointment or emails from montreal recently. Please share.

Hi Majosy,

How long did it end up taking for you to get your interview date assigned?  I’ve been waiting 106 days and still nothing!  I’m an EB-2, Montreal consulate.

13 hours ago, SciFamily said:

Hi Everyone

 

I'm also waiting for an appointment cc 30th April, I know I have a ways to go. I know it's stressful waiting, so I thought I'd share this link:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html

 

It's the monthly statistics for immigrant visas approved from every post from the State Dept. (a more reliable source to analyze).

 

We are definitely learning patience

SciFamily,

Thank you so much for this helpful link!  When I manually add up the EB visas for Montreal (including spouses and children of beneficiaries), here is what I get for each month (mind the minor arithmetic mistakes):

 

Keep in mind that this includes people who got visas through adjustment of status, which is WAY higher than consular processing as seen here 

 

Also, this is the total number of EB IVs given and NOT interviews.  Either way, we can see that lately, less EB IVs have been given out compared to earlier months.

 

We know that the total number of EB IVs worldwide is fixed at 140,000 and each country is limited to 7%.  This has not changed.  Hopefully, this month (and those going forward) will see an increase in EB visas in Montreal to counter this as was seen after April 2017 (only 19 that month).

 

Anyone have any other thoughts about this?

 

PS. Thanks again SciFamily!